Announced this Tuesday, May 26, several shots from the X-Fire launcher were carried out on May 20. The tests were jointly carried out by Soframe and Thales. They are intended to “confirm the maturity of this long-range land-based strike system”, by being able to strike a target located 150 km or beyond while ensuring a certain versatility with a wide range of French or foreign munitions. The X-Fire launcher is now available and Thales specifies that it is adapted to the logistics of the army. It is also capable of locating itself even in GNSS fog, an advantage that has become necessary in the most recent conflicts.
Continuity gives capacity
The goal here is to guarantee continuity in the availability of ammunition and launchers to ensure deep strikes. For this, the 1st Artillery Regiment of the Army currently has unit rocket launchers (LRU) developed in the United States and which can be deployed by the Bradley M270 tracked chassis launcher. But the LRUs are aging and their replacement has become a priority as they are necessary in a high intensity conflict. If their replacement is urgent, the sovereign solutions proposed by the industry risk arriving too late. With the X-Fire, Thales and Soframe therefore automatically offer the X-Fire which can launch foreign munitions while waiting for the availability of French munitions.
Two consortia are competing to offer a sovereign FLP-t ammunition. Thales and ArianeGroup developed the FLP-t 150, which was tested on May 5. For their part, Safran and MBDA offered their Thundart ammunition, tested a few days later. Lockheed Martin seems to have entered the dance by offering its Himars launcher system.
